New five-year contract to be voted on in first-quarter 2014

After nearly seven years of negotiations, Spirit Airlines may have averted another major strike.

On Friday, the low-cost carrier announced it had reached a tentative agreement on a five-year contract with its approximately 1,300 flight attendants.

The unionized flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), are expected to vote to ratify the new contract in the first quarter of 2014.

In a statement, Spirit said the agreement was unanimously supported by AFA's leadership and was reached with the assistance of the National Mediation Board, a federal agency in Washington, D.C.

"We are pleased that we reached a mutually favorable agreement that recognizes our flight attendants for the great job they do every day for the company and our customers, while also supporting Spirit's continued growth," Spirit Chief Operating Officer John Bendoraitis said.

The airline didn't disclose details of the new contract.

Spirit and its flight attendants have been locked in contract negotiations since 2007. Two years later, talks entered the supervision of the mediation board. As talks dragged on to the dissatisfaction of flight attendants, the group voted in October 2011 to authorize a strike should negotiations fail.

In March 2012, the AFA later asked the mediation agency to declare negotiations at an impasse — a necessary step to trigger a 30-day cooling off period that would produce intense negotiations resulting in an agreement or strike. A decision on the impasse had been pending as of January this year.

Health care benefits, rest periods and wages were some of the key contract issues the flight attendants have been negotiating with the Miramar-based carrier.

In recent years, flight attendants have held several informational pickets at the airline's headquarters in Miramar and at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood and other key airports around the country to voice concerns over lagging negotiations for what they called "a fair contract."

"Throughout this process, Spirit flight attendants have stood together and were prepared to reach a new, improved contract that reflected our valuable work as first responders," Todd St. Pierre, AFA President at Spirit said Friday. "We are an integral part of this airline and we believe that this tentative agreement recognizes our contributions to Spirit Airlines."

In June 2010, after four years of talks failed to produce a new contract, Spirit pilots went on a five-day strike that left thousands of passengers stranded system-wide. A month later, the pilots agreed to a five-year contract that included pay raises and "industry-leading" work rules, according to the group's union.